Your Christmas Shopping List for Me, Glorious Me

If you’ve been thinking to yourself, Goddamn, I need to get Dr. Revoltandresignation a Christmas gift (or a birthday gift — that’s coming right up too, Sagittarius that I am), look no further. Aside from a jar of Nothing, which is always a fine gift, I would like you to donate money to the Icarus Project.

I’ve hyped the Icarus Project in this space before, but I’m not shy about doing it again. They sponsor all sorts of neat projects, from their amazing mad pride website to campus support groups for the nutty. Last year they published a book of members’ work, and if it’s anything like what I’ve seen in the poetry forum, it’s good stuff. So consider either a lump sum donation, or get serious like I did and arrange to give monthly sustaining support. I won’t be accepting any other gifts, thanks. Unless, of course, you’ve bought it already and it’s perfect. In that case, send it on over.

Revolt and Resignation

In his collection of essays On Aging, Holocaust survivor Jean Amery said that one must meet the phenomenon of aging -- inevitable yet terrifying -- with both revolt and resignation. So it is with mental illness. To deny that I will always be manic-depressive would be true madness; at the same time, I must revolt against my condition, rejecting the idea that it defines and limits me.